2 
On the Preparing Iodine. 211 
liquor to a sytupy consistence, and then distil, or heat it, in a 
flask, or retort with red oxide of lead and sulphuric acid. The 
iode will thus be obtained in abundance; and this in fact, con- 
stitutes the cheapest process of obtaining it.’ 
If the product to he distilled with manganese has not been 
freed sufficiently from the muriates in which the soap lee abounds, 
there then is a copious production of chlorine, together with a 
yellow fluid, and then the quantity of iode becomes considerably 
diminished. This loss may be guarded against, by adding filings 
of zine to the mixture, previously to submiting it to distillation. 
In fact, the addition of zinc filings effects the expulsion of an ad- 
ditional portion of ivde from the mass, after the oxide of lead 
or manganese has ceased to act. 
For the knowledge of this fact, I am indebted to the chemical 
professor of the Royal Institution, 
It is obvious that instead of waste lee, the so called black ash, 
dissolyed in water, may be successfully employed. 
I remain, yours, &c. 
Messrs. Nicholson and Tilloch. 
ea 
XLV. On Preparing Iodine. By Mr. James Fisuer. 
y : Walbrook, March 1814. 
Sirs, —Mr. Accum having given to the public through the 
medium of your Magazine, some processes for preparing iodine, 
I have repeated them with success 3 and I beg, through the same 
channel, to point out another method of preparing iodine not 
mentioned by that chemist, but which has been found to answer 
well. The operation consists in concentrating the waste lees of 
the soap manufacturer, by boiling, and then mixing it with spirit 
of wine, or alcohol ; the salts of the lee become precipitated, and 
fall down to the bottom, but the iodine remains in the spirit of 
wine. If the spirit now be distilled off, and the residue be then 
heated with a little sulphuric acid, and manganese, or red lead, 
the iodine sublimates in the neck of the retort. About one drachm 
of iodine was thus procured in the presence of the members of the 
new Chemical Society of London, from ten wine gallons of soap 
lees, and this substance is therefore unquestionably, as Mr. Accum 
observes, the best. substance for obtaining iodine. 
I am, sirs, 
Your most obedient servant, 
JAMES FisHER, 
FREpDRIcK Accum. 
To Messrs. Nicholson and Tilloch, 
02 XLVI. On 
